


An Honest Profession

by kangeiko



Category: Deadwood, Firefly
Genre: Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-12-28
Updated: 2005-12-28
Packaged: 2017-10-05 09:42:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/40306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kangeiko/pseuds/kangeiko
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>There's a little bit of the whore in you, Kaylee, her daddy once said, and he had said it affectionately. </i></p>
            </blockquote>





	An Honest Profession

**Author's Note:**

> For elspethsheir.

Kaylee doesn't make plans - she knows better. Her daddy always said that making them is a good way to make God laugh, and he laughed too, long and hard. Kaylee, now, ain't sure whether she believes in God, exactly, but Reavers had to come from _somewhere_, didn't they, and that's enough to make her frightened of whoever might be listening. She takes each day as is, and looks for ways to make it not-awful, and she's as happy with a bit of time on her back as a new dress - all softness and delight and nothing more.

There's a little bit of the whore in you, Kaylee, her daddy once said, and he had said it affectionately. Back home, 'whore' wasn't a cuss word but a living like any other, and maybe Kaylee never learnt no different. Why would it matter, out in the black, where there ain't nothing but empty space and maybe Reavers, and coaxing _Serenity_ from one job to the next. She spends her time with hands pressed against the round fullness of the engine, like a mother cooing over an unborn baby, not knowing that mayhap this ain't all that like could be. How is she to know, anyhow? All she knows of manners and pretty fancies is the heavy silk of her ballgown, all pink and frilly like the cupcakes her mamma used to make.

Her daddy, it was, who taught her about engines. He didn't see much use for girl-children, and so treated Kaylee like the rest of her brothers and put her to work 'soon as she could walk. She'd toddle back and forth and bring him grips and wrenches, and sit up on top of the engine and swing her legs against the metal. Her daddy loved her for it, she is certain, and talked to her like she had grown up and not been just a bitty bit of a girl. There ain't nothing wrong with earning good coin, on your knees or back or any way you can, Kaylee-girl, her daddy said. Your great-granddaddy, he lived on the frontier, too, and so our family all know the cost of earning coin one way or the other. You find what you're good at, and you stick with it, and you get your pleasure any way you can, 'cause there ain't nothing out there in the black. You do what you need to survive, Kaylee-girl, and don't you ever feel ashamed for it.

Yes, daddy, Kaylee said obediently, and handed him the monkeywrench.

The day that _Serenity_ came to her town, she did not even pause to pack.

*

fin


End file.
